Not trying to sound harsh or point any fingers directly (this site is great - dead - but great), but having been into Z32s and 5-series Bimmers for years, the G35 community just seems to cheap out as far as how they upgrade/maintain their cars.

Again, I'm painting with a broad brush - there were plenty of cheapskates within the Z32/Bimmer communities as well, but the trend seems to be largely skewed towards that crowd in the G35 world.

Lots of G35 drivers seem to be looking for cheap mods and replica stuff, whereas there was a "do it right or don't do it at all" mentality with most Z32 guys I interacted with (eBay builds were discouraged for quality, and cheap imitation Chinese parts were discouraged because they took money from the people who actually developed innovative parts - i.e. Specialty Z and others).

Additionally, there are a ton of G35s in my area (Atlanta) that are beat to hell. There are some clean ones, but shopping for one that hadn't been made "fast and furious" via ebay, or beaten up and seemingly never washed/waxed was a chore.

I'm a year in and I've already spent a third of the purchase price on quality mods/parts and fully expect to be close to my purchase price in upgrades by the time I'm "done". This was the norm among Z32 guys I knew (not me - I was broke so it stayed stock, lol), but feels like the exception with the V35.

Is there any validity to that observation? What do you think the reason is (younger crowd, etc.)?

Just curious about what others that have been around longer than myself have observed.

Thanks!

 

When these were $40K+ cars, the level of mods was very good. Quality builds and body work, $1-2K+ in suspension work, expensive wheels, high dollar engine and turbo builds and custom interiors "done right"

Now, it's more than 10 years since I've joined. A lot of these cars are well over 100K and even approaching 200K miles. 1st owners are long gone, and by now these cars are on their 4th and 5th owners, and selling for under $10K. It just comes with the simple fact that these cars are older now, and the demographics of people buying 10+ year old cars tends to skew to those who may not have a whole lot of expendable income to really "do things right".

And in all fairness, I've observed this with a few other vehicles I've owned over the years, so I wouldn't even say it's a G35 thing. It's an older car thing really.

 

Fair point, but I owned my Z32 as it was approaching the 10 year mark as well (and past that), and the community as a whole still seemed strongly biased towards the "spend the money and do it right" crowd - is that an anomaly that is specific to the Z32 that most cars don't see within their communities in your opinion?

 

I think in a way, it's still that way here. Search around for recent threads talking about some specific "cheap" ebay type mods and you'll see some negativity still generated for those types of parts.

I myself am more of a "do it right" sort of person, but if I spent my day posting this in every thread that pops up these days you'd start to think all I do is make fun of every crappy, cheap LED headlight that someone asks about here/

There was a point where I just said "f it" and focused my responses on some of the tech questions I'm more familiar with. I think you'll find the hatred for cheap mods in pretty strong here as well.

 

That's true, too.

I want to emphasize that I'm looking for a discussion, not to encourage a torch/pitchfork mob to rally against budget builds...

That said, I definitely see a lot of posts discouraging people from selecting the "FAST/CHEAP/RELIABLE" route from the old "pick two" scenario. At the same time, I seem to also see more people attempting to go the FAST/CHEAP route while skimping on the RELIABLE part.

Good points, and thanks for the input so far.

 

There will always be a fast/cheap VS do it right the first time. Mostly because the guys that do it right the first time have learned from doing it fast and cheap.

 

These days there are too many other options on the cheap side that, paired with a younger/less experiences crowd, is far more enticing to some to justify the means of getting their car to whatever goal they have.
Most of the do it right the first time guys have moved on from this platform, and as mentioned, the cars are on to their 4th owners.
Folks need to learn the difference from being thrifty and being cheap...

 

In this context, "thrifty" would be finding good deals on quality parts (buying a used Stillen exhaust, for example). Cheap would be buying an eBay catback made of aluminum.

I'm pretty sure the original post emphasized being "cheap" - i.e. the poor quality of the actual part, not how much one spends on it (although there is often a proportionate relationship, that's not the focus here).

 

I agree with the op. I also feel it depends on what you paid for your g35. If you bought yourself a beat g for 6k common sense would be for them types to buy varrstoens and eBay parts instead of 4K wheels and 3 thousand in bolt ons.

 

honda civic prices=honda civic crowd unfortunately.

 

What I was getting at is that many will buy that ebay exhaust and call it thrifty...not cheaping out

 

G is affordable to high school/college kids who are broke. Broke kids with no ambitions = Broke *** cars

 

Plastidip and Muffler Deletes.... *shudder*

 

I have always been thrifty. This is my first fun car; all others have been practical. As a career civil servant, I could never (and still can't) afford one of these new. But I recognize quality. Always have bought used. Not a "car guy" but the forum has introduced me to modding. So this has become a late stage little hobby that I am enjoying immensely. I'll never have a show car or power beast but I will be happy with OEM-plus. Terrific info in the threads from the early generation folks that peeled the onion and put the car back together better than before. Many of the folks OP is craving are now gone but their wisdom remains for those that want to follow the quality path.

Who knew I could be the grasshopper at age 60?

 

That's for sure. there are a lot of ppl that don't have jobs or HS and just try to look for a temporary mod.